For Release: December 20, 2012 – Leslea Bennett-Webb, Office of Communications - (405) 271-5601

Purple Newborn Caps Distributed by Hospitals to Help Prevent Infant Abuse

More than 3,000 knitted and crocheted purple newborn caps were collected and distributed to 29 Oklahoma birthing hospitals participating in the “CLICK for Babies, Period of PURPLE® Crying Caps” project completed this month.

Frustration with a crying baby during the first few weeks or months of life is the number one trigger for the shaking and abuse of infants. The “CLICK for Babies, Period of PURPLE® Crying Caps” program is an effort to help spread awareness to parents and other caregivers of newborns about normal infant crying and the dangers of shaking an infant.  Parents of newborns are provided with a DVD and purple hat to take home after their discharge from the hospital. The handmade purple caps serve as an additional  reminder to parents, babysitters and other caregivers about the normal “period of purple crying” that some babies may experience, and the dangers of reacting with frustration by shaking or abusing an infant. 

“Our overall goal is to reduce abusive head trauma, also called shaken baby syndrome,” said Lisa Rhoades, project co-leader, Oklahoma Child Death Review Board. “We received great participation from volunteers across Oklahoma and even from people in other states that knitted and crocheted newborn purple hats as part of this project. This is one of many projects included in the Preparing for a Lifetime, It’s Everyone’s Responsibility statewide initiative to reduce infant mortality in Oklahoma.”

“We plan to do this project every year and will be adding additional hospitals that want to participate and involve their communities in this effort,” said Ann Benson of the Maternal and Child Health Service at the Oklahoma State Department of Health. “We will be recruiting knitters and crotcheters all year long to meet the demand.  There are about 4,500 births per month in Oklahoma and we need all the volunteers we can get to reach all the birthing hospitals that want to participate.”

Below is a list of the 2012 “Click for Babies” participating birthing hospitals:

• Bailey Medical Center, Owasso
• Chickasaw Nation Medical Center, Ada
• Comanche County Memorial Hospital, Lawton
• Hillcrest Cushing, Cushing
• Deaconess Hospital, Oklahoma City
• Duncan Regional Hospital, Duncan
• Grady Memorial Hospital, Chickasha
• Great Plains Regional Medical Center, Elk City
• Hillcrest Medical Healthcare System, Tulsa
• INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center, Oklahoma City
• INTEGRIS Edmond Health Center, Edmond
• INTEGRIS Grove General Hospital, Grove
• Jackson County Memorial Hospital, Altus
• Jane Phillips Medical Center, Tulsa
• Memorial Hospital of Stillwell, Stillwell
• Memorial Hospital of Texas County, Guymon
• Mercy Hospital Ardmore
• Moore Medical Center, Moore
• Muskogee Regional Medical Center
• Norman Regional HealthPlex, Norman
• OSU Medical Center, Tulsa
• OU Medical Center, Edmond
• The  Children’s Hospital at OU Medical Center, Oklahoma City
• Saint Francis Hospital, Tulsa
• St. Anthony Hospital, Oklahoma City
• St. Anthony  Hospital, Shawnee
• St. Mary's Regional Medical Center, Enid
• Stillwater Medical Center, Stillwater
• Valley View Regional Hospital, Ada

To learn more about the initiative to help reduce infant mortality in Oklahoma, visit http://iio.health.ok.gov. For additional information about the CLICK for Babies project, call Ann Benson at (405) 271-4471 or Lisa Rhoades, Oklahoma Child Death Review Board, (405) 606-4900. 

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